Seventeen-year-old Autumn Callahan suspects she is pregnant and goes to a crisis pregnancy center. At the center, she takes a drugstore test that confirms she is pregnant. She is told she is 10 weeks along, given literature on adoption, and shown an anti-abortion video. After learning that she cannot get an abortion in Pennsylvania without parental consent, she tries to induce a miscarriage by swallowing pills and punching herself in the stomach. When those methods fail, she tells her cousin, Skylar, that she is pregnant. Skylar steals cash from the grocery store where they work, and the two buy bus tickets to New York City. On the bus they meet Jasper, a young man persistently interested in Skylar even though she tries to blow him off.
At a Planned Parenthood clinic in Brooklyn, Autumn learns that the crisis pregnancy center lied to her about how far along she was and that she is actually 18 weeks pregnant. Though she is still able to get an abortion, she must go to a Manhattan clinic the next morning to have it performed. Autumn and Skylar spend an uncomfortable night riding the subway and playing games at an arcade. The next morning at the clinic, Autumn learns that a second-trimester abortion is a two-day procedure and that paying for it will take most of her funds. The counselor also asks her a series of questions about her sexual partners that reveal that Autumn's partners have been physically and sexually abusive.
Out of money, Skylar realizes the two have no way of going home. As Autumn asks Skylar not to call either of their mothers, Skylar reaches out to Jasper, who takes them bowling and to karaoke. At the end of the night, Skylar asks Jasper to lend them money for their bus tickets, and he agrees. Skylar leaves with Jasper to find an ATM, and Autumn later goes looking for them. She finds them kissing. Realizing Skylar is only doing it for the loan, Autumn discreetly grabs Skylar's hand to comfort her in her humiliation.
In the morning, Autumn goes to her appointment and has the abortion. Autumn and Skylar go to a restaurant, where Skylar asks her questions about the procedure, which Autumn answers tersely. The two then ride a bus back to Pennsylvania.
In April 2019, it was announced that Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin, Ryan Eggold and Sharon Van Etten had joined the cast of the film, with Eliza Hittman directing from a screenplay she wrote. Adele Romanski and Sara Murphy produced the film under their Pastel Productions banner, while Rose Garnett, Tim Headington, Elika Portnoy and Alex Orlovsky executive produced the film under their BBC Films and Tango Entertainment banners, respectively. Focus Features was slated to distribute.[9]
Never Rarely Sometimes Always had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2020.[11] It was released in the United States on March 13, 2020.[12] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was released on video on demand on April 3, 2020.[13] Focus debated re-releasing the film theatrically but was concerned about competition once theaters reopened.[14] It was released through video on demand in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2020, after being initially planned for a theatrical release.[15]
Reception
Box office
In theaters, Never Rarely Sometimes Always grossed $891,527.[16]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 99% based on 238 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Powerfully acted and directed, Never Rarely Sometimes Always reaffirms writer-director Eliza Hittman as a filmmaker of uncommon sensitivity and grace."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[8]
Critics praised the film for its approach to visual storytelling and naturalistic acting, particularly its avoidance of polemic to focus on the lives of and the bond between its two lead characters. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "What makes Never Rarely Sometimes Always so forceful—and certainly the most searingly confrontational American drama about abortion rights in recent memory—is its quality of understatement, its determination to build its argument not didactically but cinematically."[17]Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair wrote, "It's rare that the topic of abortion gets such a empathetic and holistic film treatment: passionate but unsentimental, principled without any predetermined moral.”[18] Chang concluded, "if the picture Hittman paints is stirringly bleak, it is not without its passages of tentative hope, even grace."[17]
Karen Han of Polygon wrote, "The slow build-up—and Autumn and Skylar's stoicism through it all—makes it all the more affecting when the reasoning behind the film's title is revealed."[19]
Naomi Fry of The New Yorker wrote, "In its profound sensitivity to everyday detail, Never Rarely Sometimes Always makes the viewer aware of the mundane challenges that dog every step its heroines manage to take along that path—from the large, cheap suitcase bumped along with difficulty on subway steps, to the dwindling-down-to-nothing funds in a secreted-away pouch, to the flutter-lidded, late-night dozes taken on the subway, in lieu of a place to stay, waiting out the hours."[20]
Critic Mark Kermode gave the film a 5-star rating and wrote, "Perfectly pitched and sensitively played, this is truthful, powerful and profoundly moving fare from a film-maker at the very top of her game" and added the film "is perhaps best described as a perfectly observed portrait of female friendship; a coming-of-age story with road-movie inflections, piercingly honest and deeply affecting."[21] Kermode also lauded cinematographer Hélène Louvart, "who here manages to capture moments of intense intimacy in unobtrusive fashion. Through her camera, we become both observers and participants—watching these young women's lives but also empathetically experiencing their shared journeys."[21]
In 2023, it ranked 42nd on The Hollywood Reporter's list of "The 50 Best Movies of the 21st Century So Far". The Reporter wrote that while the COVID-19 pandemic affected the film's theatrical release, its artistic impact on independent cinema prevailed, its relevance and resonance still enduring even after the U.S. Supreme CourtoverturnedRoe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.[22] It also ranked 15th on Collider's list of "The 20 Best Drama Movies of the 2020s So Far". Collider called it "one of the most excruciating viewings of the decade".[23] In 2024, Looper ranked it number 15 on its list of the "50 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time," writing "The thoughtful camerawork lends insight to the quiet, complicated world of the film's lead character, with the emotionally immersive nature of the piece managing to make something as simple as hands touching into something that tugs at your soul."[24]
^"2020 AWARDS (24TH ANNUAL)". Online Film Critics Society. January 19, 2021. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
